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Almost everyone is giving away a freebie so they can attract people to their web site. They are giving away free e-zines, ebooks, services, etc. What’s happening to all this free stuff? It’s loosing it’s perceived value. Every time you surf the internet or check your e-mail you see at least 20 to 50 freebies offers.

Don’t get me wrong freebies do increase traffic, but not like they did when the internet was new. The key is to increase the perceived value of your freebies so they will be more attractive to your audience. How do you do this? Well, here are eight ways:

1. You could tell them what the freebie is worth with a dollar amount. For example, “Subscribe to my free e-zine! A $199 value!”

2. You could add other freebies to your freebie that will increase the value. For example, “Subscribe to my free e-zine and get free access to our “subscribers only” private web site!”

3. You could tell them the freebie is only available for a limited time. For example, ” Download our free ebook, this free offer will only be available until May 30, 2000.”

4. You could tell them the freebie is only available to a limited number of people. For example, ” Our free software will only be available for the next 100 people that download it.”

5. You could give more details about the freebie. List the benefits, features, what problems the freebie will solve, etc.

6. You could describe your freebie to sound more attractive. For example, instead of “free report” you could say “free never released top secret document”

7. You could list testimonials for your freebie. Most businesses don’t give testimonials for their freebies. This would defiantly increase your freebies value.

8. You could tell people how many people have already receive your freebie. For example, “15,000 people have already subscribed to my free e-zine! Can they all be wrong?

These are only a few ways you can add value to your freebies. You could be creative and think up some other ways to increase the perceived value of your freebies. Also test each idea to see which one draws the most traffic to your web site.

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Filed under: Advertising

The height/weight charts that you see everywhere are a good height/weight standard. Nobody that is 5 feet tall can weight 200 lbs. and be in good physical condition!

On the other hand, the height/weight ratio isn’t the lone issue that determines physical fitness. The proportion of body fat is also a factor – maybe the most vital.

There are three absolutely essential factors that I believe define every successful weight loss program. The idea is to keep the muscle that you have – and add to it – while losing the fat, building muscle and increasing stamina:

1. Achieving a healthy height/weight ratio 2. Achieving a lower percentage of body fat 3. Achieving a higher degree of stamina

Success Factor #1: Achieving a healthy height/weight ratio

For women, the height to weight ratio is between 2 and 2.2 pounds per inch of height. The ratio is slightly higher for men, but not by much.

For example: a woman who is 5’1″ tall has a mid range weight of 122 pounds according to the height weight chart. A man of the same height has a mid range weight of 134 pounds.

But achieving that correct height/weight ratio isn’t all there is to successful weight loss. Scales don’t discriminate between “fat pounds” and “muscle pounds.” A man can be six feet tall, his weight can be within the ideal weight limits according to those height/weight charts – yet he can still not be physically fit.

Success Factor #2: Achieving a lower percentage of body fat

The body’s fat percentage is just that: the % fat your body contains. Your body weight is the total of everything – muscle, fat bone, etc. – combined. So the number of pounds reduced isn’t enough information to determine whether your weight loss program is successful.

There are lots of free body fat calculators online, and even a site that can determine your body fat based upon the measurements of your hips, wrist, ankle and thigh.

Weight training exercises are the single best way to reduce your body fat percentage. Achieving a lower percentage of body fat is actually accomplished by building muscle while losing fat.

Success Factor #3: Achieving a higher degree of stamina

When people are overweight and their percentage of body fat to muscle is too high, they usually don’t have a lot of stamina. They can’t walk, run or climb stairs easily.

The best way to increase stamina is by engaging in aerobic exercises that are designed to improve the cardiovascular system function. Build up your heart and lungs, and stamina always increases.

So remember, no weight loss program can be considered successful unless you keep the muscle you have, increase the overall amount of muscle in your body, and lose fat.

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Filed under: Training

Tracking assets is an important concern of every company, regardless of size. Assets are defined as any “permanent” object that a business uses internally including but not limited to computers, tools, software, or office equipment. While employees may utilize a specific tool or tools, the asset ultimately belongs to the company and must be returned. And therefore without an accurate method of keeping track of these assets it would be very easy for a company to lose control of them.

Lost assets tend to affect small businesses more profoundly. Keeping costs to a minimum is key to the success of any business. Assuring that all assets are accounted for is one of many ways to keep control of a company’s costs by eliminating the expenditures involved in replacing them.

With the many advancements in technology, asset tracking software is now available that will help any size business track valuable assets such as equipment and supplies. According to a study issued in December, 2005 by the ARC Advisory Group, the worldwide market for Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) was then at an estimated $2.2 billion and was expected to grow at about 5.0 percent per year reaching $2.8 billion in 2010.

Software for asset tracking allows greater ease in tracking of all assets owned by a company, tracking location, possession, when it left storage and when it is due to be returned, scheduled maintenance, as well cost and depreciation of the assets.

The reporting option that is built into most asset tracking solutions provides pre-built reports, including assets by category and department, check-in/check-out, net book value of assets, assets past due, audit history, and transactions.

All of this information is captured in one program and can be used on PCs as well as mobile devices. As a result, companies reduce expenses through loss prevention and improved equipment maintenance. They reduce new and unnecessary equipment purchases, and they can more accurately calculate taxes based on depreciation schedules.

The most common assets that a company must track include office and medical equipment, training and educational materials, videos, DVDs, books, software licenses, motor vehicles, maintenance equipment, production equipment, computers, and many more

Government departments, educational agencies, the health care industry, and many others have implemented asset tracking solutions in order to better manage products, become more efficient and save money. Assset tracking software is now available from many computer and office retailers. The type of scanning environment dictates the type of asset tracking software used.

There are three levels of asset tracking systems. Heavy duty systems require heavy scanning where the number of assets being tracked is as many as 100,000. Moderate duty systems track fewer assets and are typically used in larger offices and warehouses. And standard light duty systems are normally used in smaller offices.

As business management becomes more critical for businesses of all sizes, and as businesses continue to grow and become more complex, choosing the appropriate asset tracking system has never been more important.

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Filed under: Management

Lead generation is the act of getting suspects (people that you ‘think’ may want your product or service) to ‘raise’ their hands so you can actively market to them.

Getting someone with a specific need to know, like and trust you is the Duct Tape Marketing definition of “Marketing”. Effectively identifying those people with that need is lead generation.

Effective lead generation doesn’t have a magic pill. You should create 10-20 lead generating initiatives based on your core marketing message and product offer(s).

In Duct Tape Marketing lingo, think of it like Duct tape, the more layers you apply the stronger it becomes.

The 3 best lead generation vehicles are Public Relations, Advertising and Referral Marketing.

Public Relations: The duct tape marketing definition of Public Relations is getting positive mention of you or your company in newspapers, magazines, news shows, newsletters, websites and journals read by some portion of your target market.

Most small business owners are using a ‘copy cat marketing’ strategy or an ‘ostrich marketing’ strategy. When someone uses these types of advertising strategies they tend to get lousy results. Advertising, when done right is seldom matched in its ability to generate new business rapidly.

Referral Marketing: According to the duct tape marketing definition is simply put, a specific set of strategies and tools designed to bring the small business owner new clients, qualified leads and repeat business without the aid of, or in addition to, other advertising methods.

Next week we will focus on each individual strategy and give some ideas on how you can incorporate them into your business.

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Filed under: Marketing

There are many different ways in which an employer attempts to raise the morale of their employees and one way in particular that has really become popular in the modern world is the tactic of utilizing corporate functions as parties. The corporate party is something that is going on every day of the world in most of the countries in the world and the effect that a properly planned corporate party can have on morale is quite impressive. However, the key words there are properly planned, because a corporate party can also backfire and make things worse.

Of all the corporate party plans that you can do, one of the most advantageous has to be the corporate party on a boat cruise. There are many reasons as to why this is so, but the most obvious are pointed out below.

Relaxation Factor

While corporate parties can be extremely good for employee morale, they can also backfire on occasion. The reason that corporate parties can backfire is that while the party atmosphere might be there, it might at the same time not be good enough to overcome the sense of work that people get when they are with their coworkers, regardless of what the circumstances happen to be. Relaxation factor is therefore a big deal when it comes to corporate parties and when it comes to creating that factor, there are few places better than a cruise. The cruise is the ultimate epitome of relaxation and that is exactly why corporate parties on cruises are excellent ideas.

Cost Efficiency

It is important to point out that the title of this section is not ‘cost’, but rather it is ‘cost efficiency’, something that is completely different. A corporate party in a cruise will definitely cost you more money than almost any other corporate party you could think about throwing, of that there should be no question in your mind. However, the benefit that you get from throwing that particular corporate party is going to be so great that the morale boost your company gets from it is one that should increase worker productivity in your workday by quite a large extent. This extent is larger than with most other corporate party scenarios and overall the productivity increase to cost ratio that you get with a corporate party in a cruise is much better than with most other activities. Therefore, the cost efficiency is high and advantageous.

Image

There are many things that affect the morale of the average worker. While people will be quick to point out the obvious factors like workload and salary, it takes a rather observant or a rather intelligent person to realize the more subtle factor of image. The image of the administration of a business is something that affects worker morale in the sense that if the workers sense their admin personnel are looking out for them, they are likely to have better morale. Likewise, if they see the administration as cold and uncaring, their morale will suffer as a result. Throwing a corporate party in a cruise will of course heighten the positive image of the administration greatly and that is exactly what you want when trying to raise worker morale.

Travel

People in general do not get the chance to travel as much as they like. Cruises, by definition, are events during which travel will take place. Combining a cruise with a corporate party will therefore give the participants a chance to travel at the same time that they are networking with other business individuals. The end result is higher morale and better productivity when work begins again.

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Filed under: Business